February 29, 2004

Among the great, unanswered questions in life: Why do we sleep? Followed by: Why do we dream when we sleep? While I don't have much insight on either of those questions, I have experienced what this article is all about. (Thanks to Ann for the link.)

For some reason, I usually have my best flashes of insight in the shower. But that could be because I don't really wake up until I've been in there for a couple minutes! However, recently a friend and I were listening to music from decades past and trying to identify who the artists were. We were doing pretty well until we came to one song. We both knew the song but, for the life of us, could not come up with who sang it. Throughout the day I thought about it off and on, making a few guesses but with no luck. After that, I pretty much forgot about it and filed it in the "I must be getting old" category. :)

My mind obviously decided to continue to puzzle over it, though. The next morning when I woke up (without benefit of an alarm, which may have helped), it was as if a switch had been flipped, and my first conscious thought was the name of the band. Okay, not earth-shaking like literally dreaming up the periodic table of elements, but not something that I have happen every day and the force with which the name popped into my head really caught my attention.

Oh, geez, look at the time. I'd better go to sleep so I can work on figuring out that chicken and egg conundrum...

February 28, 2004

At last, women, too, can now enjoy the freedom of standing up while using the bathroom. Or, rather, do so without leaving an unholy mess behind like they do now. (Don't ask.) I'm not entirely sure how I feel about having to tote this thing around in my purse, but then it beats some of the alternatives.

February 27, 2004

And somehow gay marriage is more of a threat to our puritanical way of life in this country than this? How about the "sanctity" of being a child, unmolested by someone your parents and your religion told you to trust? Nah, let's just punish the consenting adults who made a mutual decision to share their lives and their love with each other. Because surely the Bible-quoting faithful who can find passage after passage to support the discrimination of the gay population can find something in there (a book which, by the way, I don't ever recall being designated as the charter of our country, I'm still laboring under the impression that it's the Constitution) to justify the defilement of innocent children by their religious mentors.

Oh, wait, that's a sin, too? Just like homosexuality is? Wow, so the Church was able to let this go on for decades (that we know about) to protect the priesthood from being sullied by the institution of marriage (even though that was all about greed and property back when it was put into place) but now they feel the need to protect the institution of marriage from being sullied by homosexuality.

Taking it one step further, all priests are men. The children that they've sexually abused were, according to the report above, were mostly male. Seems to me that therefore the Church has aided and abetted homosexuality all along as this went on, was reported, was known and covered up. Add to that the fact that having sex with a child is illegal based on our secular laws, and that every instance of abuse meeting the threshold of statutory rape was a crime against the state and not just against religious canon, and the pedophilic priests are as doubly guilty as the religious Right claims the gay people getting married are.

February 26, 2004

I just read this article about yet another elderly driver having an accident and hurting others upon mistaking the accelerator for the brake. Upsetting and traumatic for her, yes, but how about the young woman who is probably now bedridden for the remainder of her pregnancy?

I'd really like to know how many more of these stories we have to hear before AARP loosens its stranglehold on this issue in the U.S. It's not about age, it's about ability. In CA the law is changing for younger drivers, too, and I say hallelujah. I read that 16-year-old drivers have this hugely disproportionate number of accidents, so that change is needed. Coming to our senses and stopping people who have lost their ability to drive safely from having licenses is also needed.

I'd also like to know what actions (if any) were ever taken against the elderly gentleman in southern CA who plowed into that farmers' market and killed some people. Thankfully this story wasn't as serious -- that we're aware of -- but it could easily have been deadly, too. I wonder if we'll hear that this driver has also had other instances of minor accidents and near-misses lately that should have tipped someone in her life off to the fact that she should not be behind the wheel.

February 25, 2004

I think this editorial from the Merc sums up quite nicely how I feel about Ralph Nader deciding to once again run for President. Another article or blog I read said that Nader deserves to have a better legacy than enabling eight years of George W. Bush, and I agree. And that's too bad because he has a lot to say and a lot to offer. Just not now and not in this situation.

As he seems to be living in another dimension where he believes his candidacy will have a positive impact on this presidential race, it is my sincere hope that the people doing the electing will keep one foot in reality and not make this election any more scary than it already is.

Life in the Bay Area: Last night I paid $1.95 per gallon for gas in my car and considered myself lucky! Because I was stupid and I didn't stop for gas over the weekend when I meant to, my tank was near empty so filling it cost a lot. Given that the trend is continuing upward, I went ahead and filled it anyway since I figured I was getting a relative bargain. The two other places I passed on my way to the station I chose had their lowest grade price at $2.03 a gallon. This morning, one of those was up to $2.09 a gallon. And it's only going to keep going up!

I am so sick of being gouged by gas prices for living where I do. How the state can continue to look into this and not find that the prices are being fixed out of line with the rest of the country is beyond my comprehension. Hell, forget the rest of the country and just look at the rest of the state. If I lived in Smog Central down south, I'd be paying less. This has been seen time and time again.

For the time being, all I can do is continue to keep my eyes peeled for price fluctuations in the area (already a family hobby) and make the trek over to the area of San Jose where traditionally the prices have been lower when Costco isn't the better deal. For anyone local, I recommend this site for seeing where the prices are lowest.

The most recent posts (2/23 & 2/25) on this blog caught my eye while I was doing my nightly compulsive check of the "fresh blogs" on Blogger.

I'm not a huge eBay user, and I don't have a PayPal account (I read the terms of use and something about it made me very uneasy so I decided it wasn't worth the risk), but I'd gotten almost a dozen e-mails last year telling me that someone had tried to access my eBay account and change my password. I knew I hadn't even been to eBay in ages so I certainly hadn't tried to change it, so I ignored it. I figured that someone forgot their account name and thought it was mine, etc. After about the sixth time this happened, I looked up my account info and went there myself to make sure my password still worked. It did, no one had used my account fraudulently, I complained to eBay, the e-mails stopped and I didn't really think much more about it. Until today.

I really feel for anyone who goes through what she's going through and I'm glad that the sites where her info was used are working with her. I'm not surprised that the bank's not being very supportive, but I bet that with enough perseverance they'll eventually do the right thing. Her warning about not responding to any e-mails you get asking for eBay info is one to take to heart.

February 24, 2004

I had lunch with a co-worker at Quiznos today. Yum! That brought to mind this article I'd recently read about their really weird commercials. My position on their new, furry little spokesrodents is simple: I can't stand them. In contrast, my position on their subs is the complete opposite: I adore them. Thankfully, I was able to endure one of their commercials long enough...okay, I didn't reach for the remote quickly enough...to hear about their dollar off promotion. You bring in a coupon, any coupon for anything, and they give you a dollar off a sub. If you don't have a coupon sitting around (and, if you don't, I imagine you're not the type to use one, so this is probably pointless, but anyway) you can go to the Quiznos site and print out a phony coupon to bring in. Though, personally, I just enjoy pulling the lever to see what comes up and be intrigued by the "sexy chick" coupons that never quite come fully into view.

Kevan Barlow - yay! Julian Peterson - yay! Terrell Owens - buh-bye. Anybody want to make bets on which team will have the pleasure of taking on a new diva? It would (almost) make my day if he ended up a Raider so he could clash with Al Davis, but then we'd still have to hear about him in the local sports news all the time.

February 23, 2004

Okay, I wasn't going to even take this quiz, let alone blog about it, but the result startled me so much that I had to. The other blogs where I'd seen what country people are were all kind of weird, Swaziland, Togo, and the like. But in one of my "between project" blog-reading breaks, I decided to give it a whirl while reading frogblog and connecting via the link she provides.

Here's what it said: "You're Ireland! Mystical and rain-soaked, you remain mysterious to many people, and this makes you intriguing. You also like a good night at the pub, though many are just as worried that you will blow up the pub as drink your beverage of choice. You're good with words, remarkably lucky, and know and enjoy at least fifteen ways of eating a potato. You really don't like snakes."

I think the next-to-last sentence is pretty darn apt; I don't know about the rest except that I really don't mind snakes. And I think that anyone who really knows me will find it as hysterical as I do that it would have pegged me as Ireland, given my heritage.

A note about these kinds of "You are..." quizzes and my blog: Most other bloggers will post the results using the code provided at the end of the quiz, which will put up a picture (in this case, a big flag) and the accompanying text. Nothing wrong with that, it's just not me, so you'll probably never see that here. But if you go elsewhere (which you should, especially the referring blog!) and see them, I thought I'd let you know why I don't do it...before you go thinking I just haven't figured it out. :)

...because if this is the Janet & Justin legacy, we're all doomed.
***Update - the current day's cartoon will now be at this URL. Click on "Next" a few times to get to the one with the singing nuns.***

February 22, 2004

It would be superfluous for me to offer my opinion on the final episode of "Sex and the City" here. In the last week, it has pretty much all been said; the good, the bad, the unflattering. I can say that the series ending is about as traumatic an experience as a television viewer as I can recall enduring. Usually I have lost interest in a "favorite" show at least a season or two before it goes off the air. The only other time I can remember being really saddened by a finale was M*A*S*H back in the 80s, and it was definitely time for that boat to sail.

Being single in a different city, with a completely different kind of life...oh, and not having HBO for the first three seasons or so...I didn't think much about it when it started, other than being a fan of Sarah Jessica Parker in general, and I never imagined identifying with it very strongly. But once they put out the first season on DVD (back when they put a whole season on two discs instead of four, which made it four times as difficult and expensive to rent them at Blockbuster) and I was able to get a sense of what it was all about, I guess I kind of fell in love with it. Not just the show and the way it turned the perception of being single on its ear in the face of the media, but with these four amazing characters. By the way, I highly recommend watching any episodes on DVD that have the writer commentary with it turned on. The insight on why they made the decisions they did for show is very eye-opening.

So, now it's all over but the syndication. Charlotte got her ideal life, Miranda uncovered the unselfish love in her life, Samantha found the love of her life plus rediscovered her post-chemo libido in screaming magnificence, and Carrie got both Big and her beloved City back. I truly do hope that they begin to make movies based on the show because they would do it right and it will be like having old friends pop back into your life for a nice visit; not too short but not too long, either. And that would be just fabulous.

February 21, 2004

Well, the Boohbahs have made it to the big time as far as I'm concerned. They've made the leap from the humble pages of Slate, when I made an entry about them, to the lofty heights of VH1. They did a segment on the episode I just saw of "The Best Week Ever," and the semi-celebrities they had commenting on the show were all hypothesizing on which Boohbah is "the gay one." That pretty much elevates them to "Teletubbies" status, doesn't it? In the blog world, the real sign of having arrived will be when I see a "Which Boohbah are you?" quiz popping up on every other site I visit!

If you haven't visited their Web site yet, and really need a time-waster at work on Monday, turn down your speakers and have a ball. Booooohhh-baaahhhh!

I found my way to yet another blog yesterday and this first entry resonated with me so much that I had to link to it. (If it's no longer on top, scroll down to Feb.19th) Does anybody know where I can get a bumper sticker with that on it?

February 20, 2004

A warm and cuddly quiz for the grey and rainy weather we're having here in the Bay Area today, and anticipated over the weekend. (Quiz courtesy of Quizilla. Some fun quizzes, some good quizzes, some not-so-good quizzes.)

I am, apparently, mohair. I don't believe that I've ever worn mohair in my life, but I guess I share some of its properties. What kind of yarn are you? (I bet you thought no one would ever ask you that. Kinda leaves Barbara Walters' "What kind of tree would you be?" question in the dust, doesn't it?)

A little article from the Oddly Enough category. I somehow think that Dunkin' Donuts (the country's largest purveyor of coffee by the cup, don'tcha know) won't be shaking in their go-go boots over this one. I also think that "Hon, I'm going down to the coffeeshop," will generate a few more questions in the good town of Madison, ME than it used to.

What I find somewhat odd is that the story is out of Reuters in the UK, where toplessness isn't such a big deal.

I love you, but stay away from me with your germ-infested self! An interesting article from the Merc about the colds people always seem to have this time of year and never seem to get rid of quickly. Flu is always the one making headlines each winter, but this sounds just as bad and no shot or antibiotics can help; it's up to us to take better care of ourselves.

I have a sheet of paper clipped next to my monitor -- so it's the first thing I see when I get to work -- of hints that I printed out to remind me of what I can do to stay healthy.

Hand-to-hand contact is the most common form of transmission for viruses."

I add to that "Touch as few door handles as possible," because so many people don't wash their hands when they should! The biggest challenge for me is not touching my face because I do it often and without thinking about it. Like now. My chin is itching simply because I'm aware that I don't want to touch it! Guess it's time for a trip to the ladies' room so I can wash my hands, scratch my chin, use the facilities and encounter even more icky germs, wash my hands again, come back to my desk and put on hand lotion for my now over-dried skin, which will be ready to trap still more germs at my desk. Ah, the circle of life!

A cautionary article from Eric Sinrod, a very nice lawyer (no comments about that being an oxymoron, please) I had the pleasure of hearing speak recently at local meeting of some attorney's group -- I was "playing attorney" for the lunch, in place of my boss -- and whose newsletter list I subsequently got on without requesting it. (No, the irony is not lost on me.)

I can just imagine, given the combination of the recent hype over the Do Not Call Registry, the recent Federal anti-spam legislation and how so many people overall are just plain naive about the Internet, that this fake spam registry will get more than a few people happily handing over their addresses. Don't be one of them! Believe me, when there's an actual Do Not Spam Registry, you'll hear all about it on the local news.

If by any chance you're interested in receiving his e-mails (essentially letting you know that he has a new column and, briefly, what it's about), please let me know and I'll send you the info. Since the area he covers actually relates to my job, I decided to keep getting them. And, hey, how many nice lawyers do you actually get e-mail from these days?!?

February 19, 2004

You know, I've never fully understood that phrase. Five what? I have some theories, and maybe I can run them past the writer of 5ives. It's a blog unlike any I've come across before and I've really enjoyed some of the entries, among them this and this.

Many of the entries are pretty damned obscure and/or so personal as to not make to sense unless you're him, I imagine, but its fun to check in on and a quick read.

February 17, 2004

Oh, man, would I have loved to see the expression on the Good Gentleman from Some State's face at the end of this conversation. What a jerk. I only wish the author had chosen to offer us some clue as to what state the "gentleman" is from so he could endure a small shitstorm of letters.

Ooh, and we thought people in the highfalutin' world of literature didn't do things like this. (This is a NY Times link. I believe I've gotten one that you do not need to be registered to read; please let me know if that's not so.) I think Mr. Rechy has a very good point about people being able to anonymously trash books on Amazon. It would have been more honest to say "I am the author of this book and I'd like to respond to that" -- didn't there used to be an "I am the author" function in the review section? -- but then people probably wouldn't believe it was them!

One of my favorite kinds of news stories from the Internet to share with people are the astonishingly frequent tales of weirdness on the highways and byways of Germany. It seems that nary a week goes by when there isn't one that makes the "Oddly Enough" category on Yahoo! Today we have a sticky situation that the good people of Berlin recently encountered.

February 16, 2004

I get a kick out of clicking on various blogs that show up under "Fresh Blogs" on the Blogger homepage. I'll admit that I'm completely biased toward the more interesting-sounding ones, those that use actual words, those that are in English, and those that are a play on words of some kind. One I found tonight is called The Rant King and I decided to post it for two people: April and Ed. April because he's a hockey fan with some interesting observations on proposed changes to the game (scroll down to the Feb. 12 entry), and Ed because I figured he'd get a kick out of the post about the singing of the national anthem (the Feb. 16 entry). This is one of the many Canadian blogs I've come across since I started blogging and I think I'll be checking back for fresh rants.

Congratulations to US skier Bode Miller on winning the slalom in Austria yesterday. Sorry, Ed, we're just not a country that focuses on World Cup skiing or World Cup skiers...unless it's time for the Winter Olympics!

Let other blogs quiz you on the Presidents or point you toward where you can find out which president you're most like in character! Here at OPO, we're going to take the road slightly less-traveled and offer a quiz on the power behind the Oval Office, the First Ladies. I did miserably on it. I'll offer you one tip -- Martha Washington is not the answer to any of the questions!

I have come to the conclusion that, for me, the blog world is like a giant game of hopscotch. For one reason or another, you start a game with one click that takes you to a blog. That click can take you to one, two, three or more other clicks to other blogs. Those blogs may take you to still other blogs or sites of interest. Then, depending on whether you reach the end of the line or you make a misstep (landing someplace iffy, tired, or just plain wrong), you go back to the start and take another click taking you to another blog or site. Sometimes you play alone until you get tired of it, sometimes you play with other people by blogging about the one out of 100 things that you deem worth sharing and they take that first click. It's kind of always the same in the way it's played, and always different because there are a couple million clicks available to take you on a new path.

Personally, I like this analogy so much that I may incorporate it into my description paragraph at the top. It's time to take away the explanatory text -- if the people who are reading this don't already know what it's all about at this point, they never will, and anyone new who stumbles onto it should be able to grasp it quickly enough -- and find a zippy way to sum it all up. I was hoping to know enough about HTML at this point that I would also be able to change the font color from that odd green that I find hard to read, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Speaking of changes, I've gotten the comment that it would be preferable for the links I provide to open up in new windows instead of the same one, requiring the use of the back button to return to the blog. I believe that I have now learned how to do that, thanks to a recent round of hopscotching to Calpundit, a blog I found and have been frequenting for the last few days and that I'm hoping will be my first successful attempt at making this work. ***UPDATE: It wasn't. I'll keep working on it*** I think his recent blog on Google is both apt and some small support for my hopscotch analogy.

Feedback on whether it's better with new windows -- if it works! -- would be most appreciated. :)

So it's Monday...again...and some of us poor souls actually do have to work today. Mistakes will be made, others will be blamed. But if there's no one else within fingerpointing distance, consider consulting the Excuse-O-Mat. I happen to think the "self-loathing" ones are the most tempting to use. However, if you do, and you get slapped down, don't blame me!

February 14, 2004

As most of the people in my life know, I am a big fan of picking up pennies that I find out and about in the world. Okay, any coins, but pennies are definitely the most common find. I always seem to find them, I guess, because I'm always keeping an eye out for them. While found coins are my "specialty," I just like coins in general. That's why this site about "Smooshed Pennies" caught my eye. I don't always succumb to the temptation of making smooshed penny souvenirs when I find a machine while travelling (usually because it seems a little nuts to spend fifty cents to destroy one cent) but sometimes I do. Given that I have no good place to put them, I plan to send some of them to the person who runs this site -- she has far too few from California! I also found the hint on which kind of pennies smoosh best helpful. I had noticed that some come out a lot better than others, and now I know why. I was always trying to use the shiniest, newest penny I had and older ones work better because of their zinc.

February 13, 2004

And for those of us not in a Hallmark frame of mind for tomorrow (or if you are but the selections just don't quite grasp your complex relationship), here are a few alternative postcards to send to when you care enough to send the very oddest.

Ahh, a little (but terribly difficult) quiz about Valentine's Day from that country of love, Italy. Thankfully, it's not gushy and it's actually got interesting questions. I got only half of them right -- if someone gets them all, could they please send me the answers?!?

February 12, 2004

If you haven't already checked out Notfoolinganybody.com (either from the link to the right or when I sent it to a few of you a while back), you should! Start with this article, which gives a pretty good idea of what it's all about and how one business responded to it. And if you have checked it out, it's time to go back because there are some new additions (check the Index and head to the bottom).

I get such a kick out of not only her pictures, but her commentary. Now that I have my very own digital camera (many thanks, Sean!), I plan to take a few pictures of Bay Area converstions and send them in. If you can think of any good ones in particular, let me know in the comments.

February 03, 2004

I can't really say this one is random, as it was featured by Blogger as a blog they "noticed." And I noticed them noticing. :)

The description at the top sums it up pretty well...at least up to "Daily Show." (After that he kind of loses me.) It's a funny take on the current elections that I'll be checking in on from time to time, as it hits the right tone for me and will save me having to blog about much political stuff myself! The only complaints I have about reading it -- not that anyone asked -- are that it's easy to miss where one day ends and the next begins, and some of the entries are so short that I keep mistaking the one-liners for headings because there's no time notation or signature following them.

February 02, 2004

It was obvious that there was going to be talk, talk and more talk - not to mention speculation - about the Janet and Justin moment from yesterday's halftime show. However, the anger and criticism has gotten way out of proportion to the deed in my opinion. This story fills in some of the "What happened?" gaps pretty well (and seems to confirm my theory that the red part of the outfit was supposed to stay in place...if in fact full-on flashing wasn't planned) and touches on the furor it has caused.

I feel that the threat of investigations and fines is so typical of a TV society that is okay with violence, even in shows for children, but is so uptight and repressed about sex that one moment of one bared breast causes a storm of controversy. (Do you hear that sound? Yep, it's all of Europe laughing its collective ass off at how stupid this whole thing is.) However, ads about making sure that men can have erections -- doesn't get much more sexual than that, does it? -- are hunky-dory. I happen to have been a lot more annoyed by the immature ads featuring horse flatulence and crotch-biting dogs than I was by what I saw somewhere referred to as Breastgate. Not to mention that the entire batch of the non-Janet performances at halftime were utter crap. (That's what MTV should be apologizing for!)

So, in the spirit of saying *nyah!* to all the outraged ninnies and hypocrites who made calls to CBS over the whole thing, here's some background on what it was Janet was apparently wearing under her ripaway bustier. Forget pasties, girlfriend was sporting a nipple shield! I knew she had a piercing (at least one), and is fond of wearing chains connecting said piercing to...wherever...but I'd never personally heard of a nipple shield. Being the curious sort, I did a little more looking and, in case you were wondering, here is how they work. (Yes, it has pictures. If you're easily offended, be smart and don't click on it.) Not really my cup of tea, but I can appreciate the decorative nature of them if you've already gone down the breast piercing road. I'd take that over an eyebrow piercing any day!

Gee, ol' Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning. A few upstart competitors didn't, but the consensus is that there will be "six more weeks of winter." Wow, what a shock. Since winter lasts exactly until March 20th every single year, this is not exactly what I call news. I think it's a cute tradition that has gotten out of hand, due in no small part to the popularity of the movie Groundhog Day. I love that movie -- it's one of those that will make me stop and watch if I come across it, no matter how many times I've seen it before -- but when they interview people every year who are disappointed that spring won't be here early...whatever.

February 01, 2004

Forget the game. Forget the commercials. Forget the Lingerie Bowl. It was all about the Boob Moment. I think there will be endless debate about whether it was an accident or on purpose, but either way it was absolutely jaw-dropping. I love the look she's shooting him in the second picture...that makes me think that it wasn't planned. I think they had planned for him to grab the black piece only, to expose the red-covered breast. But then, the question is begged as to why she was wearing whatever that was "covering" her nipple. Regardless, I think it had the desired effect...Britney and Madonna who?!?